Jewish Congregations to Join Effort to Aid Children in Crisis

The sixth-graders at Temple Judea’s Hebrew school in West Palm Beach, Fla., have been contributing their tzedakah money in the last year to a new local shelter for battered and abused children.

On Halloween, along with candy-filled pillowcases, the children will be carrying pledge cards and asking their neighbors to contribute money to the Homesafe shelter as well.

And Nov. 1, congregants at Temple Judea will honor the organizers of Homesafe with a special Friday night service focused on the needs of children in crisis.

The temple is one of more than 1,000 synagogues and havurot participating in the 1996 Children’s Sabbath, organized by the Washington-based Children’s Defense Fund.

The Jewish congregations are joining tens of thousands of mosques and Catholic and Protestant churches in the event.

Some 20,000 congregations across the country are holding special services on the National Observance of Children’s Sabbath, which is taking place Oct. 18- 20.

About 20,000 others will be making the cause during another Sabbath, or throughout the year with special educational and worship projects, Susan Willhauck, coordinator of the Children’s Sabbath program at the Children’s Defense Fund, said in an interview.

The fund created the National Observance of Children’s Sabbath five years ago to address the high levels of poverty and violence that affect the youngest Americans.

According to the fund, every day in America three children die from abuse or neglect, six children commit suicide and 13 children are homicide victims. Another 2,660 children are born into poverty daily, 2,833 children drop out of school, 8,493 children are reported abused or neglected, and 13,076 public school students are suspended, the fund added.

Most of the Reform movement’s approximately 850 congregations will be honoring the event in some manner, as will several hundred of the Conservative movement’s 765 synagogues and many of the Reconstructionist movement’s congregations and havurot.

“We must address the concerns of the less fortunate who we seem to lose in the society in which we live today, because the general feeling is that people are comfortable and unaware of those who are less fortunate,” said Allan Ades, president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

According to Sheree Friedlander, educational director of the Temple Judea Hebrew school, the event provides a good way to make the children of West Palm Beach aware of other’s circumstances.

“The concept of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, is part of Judaism, and tzedakah is a mandate,” said Friedlander.

“What better thing is there for our children than for them to reach out to others who live in situations not as wonderful as theirs?”

By having the special Sabbath service, “a very spiritual evening touches them close to their heart. And as we get into the year it will get them more involved in youth programs to do social action,” she said of her congregation’s plans.

That is precisely what Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, is hoping happens at all the congregations.

The Children’s Sabbath is “an attempt to build a long-term, effective grass- roots movement” of people concerned about the high level of poverty and other social and economic problems confronting American children, she said.

“I hope we have a lot more people committed to advocating for children year round,” said Wright Edelman, in a conference call with reporters.

“We are bringing numbers of religious people to the table so that they can do locally based work,” she said.